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My Reaction to the "Alien" RE-boot, or RE-make or RE-...whatever...

These people are going bat$hit crazy with these reboots...that's the jist of this article.
Okay, I know other people have expressed the exact same ideas that I'm about to, but for ME this is cathartic, so bear with me. I'm a HUGE Batman fan. Everyone has that one story that is their favorite, and Batman is mine. Rebooting the Batman franchise was sheer genius. The concept was relatively unheard of at the time, at least, not as it is now, and many fans, like myself, felt that they had been dealt an unjust hand by WB and Schumacher with "Batman and Robin". When a highly talented up and coming director was hired to take on the task of recreating Batman on the big screen, everyone was thrilled. I remember roughly eight months before "Batman Begins" was released, getting a glimpse of the first trailer for it. It was short and gloomy, and when they show Batman for that split second, it was more reminescent of a suspense/thriller movie than anything else out there. The following summer, I saw the movie three times.

The world of "rebooting" had now been shown to the movie industry fatcats, and they went nuts with this new found freedom. It's kind of like a divorce without paying alimony. The thing is, I can see some reasons to reboot "Alien(s)" while I can see some to not. Here they are as follows:

Reasons FOR a reboot:

1)It's a GREAT story

2)It was never fully enough explored

3)More stories from the "Alien" universe (though not a RE-TELLIN) would be interesting to see.

4)Most importantly, the last two were SO bad, and they $hit on such a great epic sci-fi story, that we almost NEED reboot to repair their crap.

Reasons AGAINST:

1)"Alien and Aliens" are right up there with "Star Wars". Could you reboot that?

2)Would RE-TELLING the same story over be that interesting, considering how prevalent the movies are on cable, and how well they have aged?

3)Ripley is THE Female Heroine. The ultimate. How could they recast her?

4)Sigourney Weaver (one of the hottest older women out there), does she not deserve to finish Ripley's story?

So what do you guys think of my points?

*Image from Wikipedia.org
0 Yes
1 No
TheDurkinKnight
5/28/2009

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14 Comments

I agree with you. As does everyone else. Ripley is the original Scifi Super-Bitch. I mean it like, "Thats a bad bitch!" There is no reason to remake "Alien". It's timeless.

I like BillyBlack's idea better. Tell the story of the crew of the ship they encounter the face grabber on.

If they're going to reboot it, they're going to reboot it. There is nothing you can do but close your eyes and let it happen. Like prom night!

A star wars reboot would be a welcome thing. I'm going to send a terminator back in time to kill george lucas before he makes the prequels.

I hope Green Lantern is a reboot of star wars. What I mean is I hope it has that huge sense of wonder and amazement that star wars did. Can you imagine a nation of movie goers sayin', "I dont know who Green Lantern is but he's badass!"
Betty - 5/28/2009, 8:04 PM
i dont like the idea of rebooting shit like, alien, predator, or even NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET. Ccertain things are what they are, and are timeless. i dont mind rebooting star trek or batman b/c the concepts themselves are priceless! you cant do better than WEAVER, SCHWARTZENEGER, AND ENGLUND. i understand continueing the concept with things like a FANTASTIC FOUR reboot but whats next? it sucks that franchises end but they have to eventually you cant have like 20 PLANET OF THE APES movies etc.
dellamorte1872 - 5/28/2009, 8:57 PM
There are 20 "planet of the apes" movies.
Betty - 5/28/2009, 9:16 PM
well like 7 and a cartoon lol....it was a little joke
dellamorte1872 - 5/28/2009, 9:25 PM
I liked the Star Wars prequels, especiall EP III. They were good, with the exception of Jar Jar.

I was a lit major in college and the Prequels made the whole series into a classical tragedy. It had all of the earmarks of the Tragic hero cycle.

1) Man of High Estate.

We have a man of high estate, a king, prince, general, etc. Often, our first views of the hero

are skewed through the eyes and views of another, giving us a hint at their potential and

greatness.



2) A Flaw in Character.

We then become aware of a driving force within the hero, something that often at least

borders on obsession. We will also witness the nature of the inner torment he goes through

as he follows his obsession.



3) Intrusion of Time and a Sense of Urgency.

As the inner and outer conflicts the hero faces as he pursues his course intensify, we see

time becoming more and more important. A sense of urgency develops with the plot and the

conflict that not only creates tension, but also creates the effect of a kind of steamrolling

inevitability regarding the hero's fall that he has put into motion himself.



4) Misreadings and Rationalizations.

Contributing to, and furthering the obsession and the control of the tragic flaw, are

misreadings, supernatural suggestion, and accident or chance. Things happen a split-second

too late: the hero operates on what he believes to be the case rather than what he actually

knows to be the case. Soon they are one and the same thing to him.



5) Murder, Exile, Alienation of Enemies and Allies.

As the story continues, conflicts arise which cause the death or alienation of all of the hero's

former friends, allies, and/or mentors, eventually removing all forms of support for the hero.

He must face things alone.



6) Gradual Isolation of the Tragic Hero.

Soon the hero is isolated, brining on new problems: sleeplessness, rage, confusion,

hallucination, and violence.



7) Mobilization of the Opposition.

At some point, the opposing forces must mobilize against the hero in order to bring the

tragedy to its conclusion.



8) Tragic Recognition of the Flaw by the Tragic Hero: Too Late.

At some point, the hero must realize the mistake he has made that is bringing about his

demise. He must know that he, and he alone, is to blame for his downfall. However, this

recognition always comes to late to save the life of the hero.



9) Last, Courageous Attempt to Restore Lost Honor/Greatness.

While the hero's life is forfeit, he does, after Tragic Recognition, receive some chance to

redeem himself, at least a little. A display of courage, nobility of the heart, self-sacrifice,

something to show us that while he was someone who needed to be defeated, brought down,

or even a monster, he had good in him.



10) Audience Recognizes Potential for Greatness.

This is inevitably tied to the hero's attempt to restore his greatness. The audience must

recognize what a tragic waste the death of the hero is, what kind of person he could have

been had it not been for his mistakes and downfall.


11) Death of the Tragic Hero.
The Hero Must Die. Finito.

12) Restoration of Order.
A central theme to all Shakespearean plays, tragedies and others. The natural order of things must be reestablished.


I know a lot of audiences didn't like them, but I did.


THEHAWK - 5/28/2009, 10:12 PM
i thought the PREQUELS had good moments even though by and large i didnt like them as a whole obviously theyre no 4-6 but they each had good parts too. like natalie portman as luke and leias mom. liam neeson as a JEDI MASTER and ewan magregor as a young OBI-WAN, and the new special effects for YODA in part 2 and 3. but i hated JAR-JAR, i hated that METACLORION COUNT idea, C3PO being built by ANAKIN i found hard to believe! AND the kid in the first one who plays ANAKIN overacted so much it was nauseating. but thats only 1 man's opinion. plus the dialogue sucked ALOT of the time
dellamorte1872 - 5/29/2009, 8:38 AM
@Betty, y'know what, I saw the new Trek movie and I have to say, it had that sense of "fun" that I thought was missing from the Star Wars prequels. I saw it three times and I'm not even a fanatic Trek fan (I AM a fanatic Batman fan and saw TDK four times tho!)
TheDurkinKnight - 5/29/2009, 10:20 AM
i never liked the alien movies
no offence, but i found them all very weak and annoying

the Trek movie was done amazingly well, and with the time traveling has set it up for these characters to be able to do whatever the writers want without messing up the continuity of the series

really though, if you like a series you may as well try and enjoy the reboots, prequels and sequels because they are gonna be made whether you like it or not
realfirstavenger - 5/29/2009, 11:15 AM
i don't know if a reboot of alien is such a good idea, but i wouldn't mind seeing a prequel of what happened to the original colony before ripley and the rest showed up. that could be a good story with a whole now set of characters to work with. the best part being, that in the end of that film the aliens would win.
KEROSENE - 5/29/2009, 12:21 PM
@Durkin: I have to disagree with you on one big thing, Alien 3 did not suck. Aliens has always been my favorite of the franchise(Game over man, Game over!) but Alien 3 ranks closely behind Alien in my opinion. Asiode from that you points are quite sound. All-in-all, I am more for this than against it.
TheMyth - 5/29/2009, 3:41 PM
TheDurkinKnight--totally, I saw it twice and I havent done that since "Fight Club".

TheMyth--I loved Bill Paxton in aliens. Hell, I love Bill Paxton. If you havent seen "Frailty", you've just gotta! It was his directorial debut and I gotta say, if that was my debut as a director, I would think I was King Shit!

Wasn't big on Alien 3 though. Cant remember much. I remember it was a prison planet and they were always trying to rape Ripley. The alien was CG only and she dies in the end. I liked resurrection alot more.
Betty - 5/29/2009, 3:41 PM
@ Betty: Alien 3 is a PRIME example of how the powers that be can let a story go so bad! I mean, she's whoopin tail left and right in "Aliens"...all the while raising the bar on action movie standards, let alone REDEFINING the role of a heroine. Ripley stands as the prime example of a BELIEVEABLE female hero...one who is strong without sacrificing her feminitity (a la Linda Hamilton). And after taking on the Queen to save Newt and her shipmates, they all get wasted in the very next movie. Resurrection was OKAY considering what it was built on, much int he same way that if you put a dollhouse on top of a sinkhole, you'd say that's the best that can be done, y'know? BTW did you see Tombstone? Paxton AND Michael Beihn in that!
TheDurkinKnight - 5/29/2009, 4:46 PM
"Law don't go 'round here lawdog!"

I had the coolest history teacher in highschool. We watched Tombstone once a month!
Betty - 5/31/2009, 12:24 AM
"I'll be ya huckleberry." Val Kilmers best performance EVER in that movie, so [frick]ing awesome. Your a loser if Tombstone isn't in your DVD collection lol.

I guess I'm alone in enjoying Alien 3. All that really pissed me off about it was killing Hicks and Newt in that crash. Aside from that I loved it. Durkin, Ripley had a platoon of colonial marines and state of the art weapons for combating the xenomorphs in Aliens. In Alien 3 she was stranded on a planetary penal colony without those same resources, so naturally it would be a different sort of challenge. Not to mention the xenomorph in Alien 3 came froma dog as apposed to a human, like every other xenomorph in the film series. What's the difference? Read the comics and you'll find that the host of the egg determines a great deal of the physical characteristics of the xenomorph that comes from said host, also there is are 2 types of eggs and huggers, one type produces only drones while another produces praetorian's, which are much, much meaner.

I thought Resurrection was a huge steaming pile personally, but to each his own ;)
TheMyth - 6/1/2009, 4:41 AM

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